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Basketball season draws to a close

The varsity and JV Phantoms were the honorees at a banquet at Maswik last Sunday to mark the end of the basketball season.

As head coach for both the girls and the boys, the evening belonged to Dan Lopez, who talked about his teams' potential in the coming years and said goodbye to his seniors.

"If the future of our girls basketball program is like a company that's about to go public on the stock market, I would seriously recommend that you invest in this group because over the next couple of years they are really going to be tough to beat," he said.

Of the boys, he said that despite the loss of three key seniors, "our upside for this group is encouraging. We have a good nucleus coming back."

The Lady Phantoms received their awards first. Lopez started with the team captains, Lindsay Haswood and Lizzy Tobin.

Lindsay Haswood was named top scorer for the season and Offensive Player of the Year. She was also named to Second Team All Conference in A1 North.

"I think this is a pretty significant compliment, if you look at the teams in our conference, they have a lot of guards ­ very good guards," he said.

Tobin was Defensive Player of the Year and named to First Team All Conference in 1A North.

"We're looking forward to a lot of things from Elizabeth next year," Lopez said.

Monique Streit was JV Player of the Year.

Miriam Bankston was the leading rebounder, pulling down 21, 24 and 23 rebounds in three recent consecutive games.

"There's a 260 number in our gym for the most rebounds in a season," Lopez said. "I hope that by the time Miriam has graduated from here, her name will be up there. If she keeps working, it certainly will be."

Jessica Shields, who played for the first time this year, was named Most Improved.

Overall Lopez said that even the JV players came a long way in the short time he had coached them.

"They got serious varsity minutes. That's only going to help them in the future," he said.

To thank him for his efforts, the Lady Phantoms presented him with a Westcor Mall gift card.

Lopez then turned to the boys, who went to state for the third year in a row this year. He had an emotional goodbye for the three seniors who were there for the whole ride ­ Emanuel Webb, Lydell Talas and Paul Garza.

"One of the down sides of coaching is having to say goodbye to kids like these," he said.

All three seniors received captain's pins.

Talas was named Defensive Player of the Year and was named to Second Team All Conference in 1A North.

"He was starting against players much bigger and heavier than him but he did fine all season," Lopez said.

Webb, who was the Phantoms' top scorer, was named Offensive Player of the Year. He was also named to First Team All Conference in 1A North.

"He also got some haircut award, but I forgot to bring the clippers," Lopez said.

Cuco Jaime was named JV Player of the Year, not only for his effort on the court but for his determination in the classroom to maintain his eligibility to play.

Bille Booth was named leading rebound. He was also named to Second Team, All Conference for A North.

Cruz Caballero was Most Improved.

Lopez also singled out sophomore Daniel Trenchard as one of the cornerstones of the future Phantoms.

"We're looking forward to a lot of good things from Danny," he said. "I know that by the time he's a junior or senior we're going to be talking about all-conference 1A this and all-conference 1A that."

Lopez thanked Dean of Students Becky Crumbo for her work with students to help them meet this year's higher eligibility standard for sports. He also thanked Debi Roman for making "pounds of granola" for the teams to eat on the road.

"I don't know if she put anything in it before we played Valley Lutheran but I'd like to thank her for doing that for us," he said.

Lopez also thanked Xanterra for providing the food, and the Booster Club for all of their support which includes hotel rooms for overnight trips, awards and the banquets. He gave a nod to Delaware North, IMAX, McDonald's and Holsum Bakeries.


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